Stylos is the blog of Jeff Riddle, a Reformed Baptist Pastor in North Garden, Virginia. The title "Stylos" is the Greek word for pillar. In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul urges his readers to consider "how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar (stylos) and ground of the truth."

Friday, September 07, 2018

The Vision (9.7.18): The Word of God as an Ordinary Means of Grace

Image: Charles Hodge (1797-1878)

In light of an invitation to address this topic in a conference next week,
I have been giving thought of late to the theme of God’s Word as an ordinary
means of grace.

The Spirit
of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and
converting sinners, and of building
them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.

This indicates the sense that the Word (its reading and its
preaching) is an ordinance of both conversion
and edification. This twofold purpose
recalls Psalm 19:7 (emphasis added):

The law of
the LORD is perfect, converting the soul:
the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

In his three volume Systematic
Theology, the “Old Princeton” theologian Charles Hodge (1797-1878) devotes
an extended section to the Word of God as a means of grace (see Volume III,
chapter XX, pp. 466-484). At one point, he reflects on the fact that without
the reading and hearing of God’s Word even a regenerate soul would be at a
loss:

Even a
regenerated soul without any truth before it, would be in blank darkness. It would be in the state of a
regenerated infant; or in the state of an
unborn infant in relation to the external world; having eyes and ears, but nothing to call its faculties of sight
and hearing into exercise.

He concludes:

The Bible, therefore, is essential to
the conscious existence of the divine life in the soul and to all its
rational exercises. The Christian can no more live
without the Bible, than his body can live without food. The Word of God is milk and strong meat, it is as water to
the thirsty, it is honey and the honeycomb
(478-479).

If we are to
grow in Christ, we need the “intake” of His Word. We need to read the Bible
privately and to hear it read corporately. We need also to hear it taught and
preached among his people.

May the Lord
use his Word as a means of grace to convert souls and to make wise the simple.